Button strip retaining means



March 27, 1962 Filed Aug. 16, 1957 INVENTOR. EHIL A WINNEUISSE R BY y ;TTORflEY l March 27, 1962 E. A. WINNEWISSER 3,027,157

BUTTON STRIP RETAINING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 16, 1957INVENTOR.

EHIL A. WINNEWISSER HTTORNEV States Patent ice 3,027,157 BUTTON STRIPRETAINING MEANS Emil A. Winnewisser, East Syracuse, N.Y., assignor toWard Industries Corporation, Syracuse, N.Y., a corporation of DelawareFiled Aug. 16, 1957, Ser. No. 678,630 Claims. (Cl. 269-153) Thisinvention relates to a clamp assembly attachment to a folding machine,and more particularly to a clamp adapted to retain in position thebutton strips of a shirt placed on the folding table of a machine forthe folding of said shirt.

Heretofore, various garment folding machines have been presented for thefolding of laundered and cleaned garments. In the case of shirts and thelike, means such as expanding collar formers have been employed toretain the shirt in position after it has been placed on the foldingtable of the machine. Since only the collar button is fastened prior tofolding, the button strips have a tendency to spread apart during thefolding operations, so that the finished folded shirt has the front openand is subsequently folded with the various portions of the garment inmisalignment. For the operator of the machine to take time to buttonother buttons of the shirt is time consuming and therefore expensive.

It is accordingly the primary purpose of this invention to provide aclamp assembly for holding the button strips of a foldable garment inintended position during the folding operations of a folding machine.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a clamp of the abovenature which is easily installed on any shirt folding machines of thetype described, and which affords great ease of alignment of the buttonstrips prior to the clamping, and which clamp assembly is quickly andeasily released, allowing easy removal of the folded article therefrom.

According to this concept, a clamp is provided for attachment to anautomatic shirt folding table such as the machine disclosed in PatentNumber 2,508,108. A clamp arm with a toggle clamp lever attached theretois provided. The operator of the machine places the button strips of thegarment in position and presses downwardly on the clamp lever, retainingthe strips in their intended position.

The above and further advantages will become apparent when the followingspecification is read with reference to the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIGURE 1 is front elevation of the clamping assembly.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the clamping assembly, viewing fromright to left of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged elevation of the clamp arm assembly.

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of an automatic shirt folding machine,details omitted, showing the displacement of the clamping assembly inrelation to a shirt placed for folding.

The button strip clamp is adapted to be placed in the top of anautomatic shirt folding table such as the one disclosed in Patent Number2,508,108, the button strip clamping unit being placed near the bottomor tail end of the table and in alignment with the position of thebutton strips of a shirt placed thereon for folding.

The clamping assembly is mounted on a supporting bracket 3, suitablyshaped of heavy gauge sheet metal or the like, and fastened to the frontof the table with the clamp extending through the surface thereof. Aslot cover 5 is adapted to fill in the opening or slot cut into thetable surface 4 of the folding machine. With the assembly installed onthe folding machine 40, FIGURE 4, the slot cover 5 will be substantiallyin the same plane or otherwise flush with the surface 4 of the foldingtable.

The clamp arm 14 of the present modification of the assembly ispivotally attached to the bracket 3 at 15 by a suitable roll pin orother means. The arm 14 is shaped with right angle bends so that it mayproject through an opening in the slot cover 5 and above the surface 4of the folding table. The opposite end of the arm 14 is bifurcated andhas a pin 13 therethrough for receiving the clamp lever 10, which lever10 is in the shape of a toggle. The end portion 11 of lever 10 isheavier than end 12, or is otherwise balanced so that the lever 10 whichpivots freely on the pin 13 will be weighted at end 11. The end portion12 is slightly enlarged in dimension so as to engagingly contact anexcavated portion 16 of arm 14, as.

shown in FIGURE 1.

A second support bracket 2, fastened to bracket 3, supports the lockingand releasing assembly. This assembly comprises mainly left handspring-held arm 20 and right hand spring-held arm 21 pivotally mountedto bracket 2 on pins 25 and 26 respectively. A tension spring 23 istensionally supported between suitable pins at the outside ends ofspring-held arms 20 and 21. The spring-held arms 20 and 21 have innerends overlapping and bifurcated as at 22 in FIGURE 1, and a pivot pin 24is slidably disposed thereat. This pivot pin 24 is fastened to anupstanding link member 28 so that the link 28 and the pin 24 areslidable vertically as a unit. Link 28 is pivotally attached at itsupper end to a second link 29. Link 29, at its other end, is pivotallymounted at 15, and is adapted so as to pivot at 15 in unison with clamparm 14 for lifting the arm, as will be further described. A manualrelease handle 27 is fastened at one end of spring'held arm 21.

The whole assembly is provided with an automatic release assembly forattachment to the air pressure supply used with most garment foldingmachines. This assembly 30 comprises a resilient diaphragm 31 supportedbetween a hollow upper shell 32 and hollow lower shell 33 fastenedtogether by screws 35. A fitting and hose 34 fastened at the bottomshell 33 lead to the source of air under pressure (not shown), and admitthis air pressure to the underside of diaphragm 31. The upper shell 32has a portion upstanding and threaded so as to be threadably andadjustably engaged through an opening in the bracket 3. A plunger 38 hasits bottom end resting on the upper surface of diaphragm 31 and isdisposed in the upstanding portion of upper shell 32 so that the upperend of the plunger 38 engages the bottom of link 28. The height of thetravel of the plunger may be regulated by adjusting the disposition ofthe upstanding portion of shell 32 at the bracket 3, upon which thewhole assembly 30 is locked in position by collar 37 and set screw 36.

The spring-held arms 20 and 21 are so arranged as to engage a pivot pinto releasably maintain the links 28 and 29 in an upward or downwardposition, so as to subsequently place the clamp arm 14 in an upward ordownward position. FIGURE 1 illustrates the limits of vertical travel ofthe slidable pivot pin 24 as shown at references 24 and 24A. It is seenthat the spring arms in their illustrated positions in FIGURE 1 lie withtheir outer ends pointed at an angle above a horizontal. The pivot pinis accordingly located at point 24, and spring 23 maintains tension onthe spring-held arms to retain them in position. When the handle 27(FIGURE 1) is moved to the left as indicated by the arrow, the armspivot about pins 25 and 26, placing the pivot pin in the positionindicated at 24A. The outer ends of the spring held arms 20 and 21 willthen lie in a complementary position to the position illustrated, withthe arms pointed at an angle below the horizontal. This will result inthe link 28 being moved vertically upward, pivoting the link 29 upwardlyand thus moving clamp arm 14 off the table, as seen in FIGURE 3. It isobvious that should autoare in the position in FIGURE 3.

matic operation be desired, the application of air pressure within thebottom shell 33 to the underside of diaphragm 31 will lift the diaphragmand thus raise the plunger 33 against the bottom of link 28. The link28, by means of plunger 38, will thus move the spring-held arms to theircomplementary position instead of the handle 27. The spring-held armsare placed in the position shown in FIGURE 1 by manual pressure on theclamp lever 11 by the operator.

Having described the mechanical operation of the various elements of theassembly, the operation of the assembly within a machine for folding ashirt will now be described.

The assembly is installed in a shirt folding table 4 as shown in FIGURES1 and 4, with the spring-held arms in the position so that the clamp arm14 and clamp lever 10 The shirt 'is placed face down on the table in theconventional manner, and the collar button has at this time beenbuttoned. The collar is positioned over the collar former and retainedin position thereat. For purposes of illustration, the shirt in FIGURE 4has been shown with the back cut away, exposing the button strips,herein referred to as the button strip 6 and the button hole strip '7.Having positioned the shirt 41 on the machine, the operator lifts thetail of the back portion of the shirt and grasps the button strips,placing the button strip 6 in the excavated portion 16 of clamp arm 14as shown in FIGURE 3. The operator then places the button hole strip 7on the table under the clamp arm 14 at the position shown in FIGURE 3.It is seen that the button strips overlap each other. Due to the pull onthe bosom of the shirt during the folding operation, the button stripstend to pull apart. Therefore, because of the crossing of the stripsbefore folding, the result after folding is that the button strips aresubstantially straight. This is generally conceded in the art as thebest manner of presenting neat, uniformly folded shirts, especiallywhere the body of the shirt is full-cut. The operation of placing thebutton strips is accomplished substantially simultaneously by theoperator. After the button strips are placed, the operator manuallypresses down on the clamp lever 10, moving the spring-held arms 20 and21 to their complementary positions in FIGURE 1. The end 12 of lever 10contacts and retains the button strip 6 in position, the button holestrip 7 being retained in position by the clamp arm 14. A smallspecially shaped leaf spring 8, FIGURE 1, protruding through a slot (notshown) in the cover bears on the underside of the strip 7 to aid inretaining it in position.

After the shirt form or plate 42 is in place on the shirt and the buttonstrips are in place, air under pressure passes to the automatic releaseassembly 30. This occurs before folding blade 47 folds the tail portionof the shirt or folding mechanism 43 operates to fold the arm portion ofthe shirt. The manual release 27 is for the purpose of releasing theclamp if the button strips have been misplaced prior to folding of theshirt.

As hereinbefore mentioned, the weighted or counterbalanced end 11 oflever 19 maintains the end 12 of lever in disengagement with the clamparm 14 when the arm is in the position shown in FIGURE 3.

Having described a particular embodiment of my invention, it is to beunderstood that the invention is not to be limited to the structureshown, but that modifications may be made which do not depart from thespirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A button strip clamp for a shirt folding machine having a workingsurface comprising supporting means adapted to be fastened to saidfolding machine, a clamp arm pivotally attached to said supporting meansand having a portion adapted to extend over and engage the said surface,a clamp lever pivotally attached intermediate its ends to said clamp armportion, said clamp lever having one end adapted to extend below saidclamp arm portion, and means operable to move said clamp arm downwardlyinto engagement with said working surface and the said clamp lever intoengagement with said clamp arm.

2. A button strip clamp for a shirt folding machine having a workingsurface comprising a supporting means adapted to be fastened to saidfolding machine, a clamp arm pivotally attached to said supporting meansand having a portion adapted to extend over and engage the said surface,a clamp lever pivotally attached intermediate its ends to said clamp armportion, said clamp lever having one end adapted to extend below saidclamp arm portion, and spring held means operably connected with saidclamp arm for moving said clamp arm downwardly into engagement with saidworking surface and the said clamp lever into engagement with said clamparm.

3. A button strip clamp for a shirt folding machine as defined in claim2, and pressure operated release means operably engaging said springheld means for releasing said clamp lever from engagement with saidclamp arm.

4. A button strip clamp for a shirt folding machine having a workingsurface comprising supporting means adapted to be fastened to saidfolding machine, a clamp arm pivotally attached to said supporting meansand having a portion adapted to extend over and engage the said surface,a clamp lever pivotally attached intermediate its ends to said clamp armportion, said clamp lever having one end adapted to extend below saidclamp arm portion, actuating means operable to move said clamp armdownwardly into engagement with said working surface and the said clamplever into engagement with said clamp arm, and pressure operated releasemeans operably engaging said actuating means for releasing said clamparm and said clamp lever.

5. A button strip clamp for a shirt folding machine as defined in claim4, said pressure operated release means including a diaphragm and aplunger operably connected with said actuating means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS1,745,379 Perry Feb. 4, 1930 2,130,733 Combarette Sept. 30, 19382,183,244 Misterly et a1. Dec. 12, 1939 2,369,607 Rieck Feb. 13, 19452,616,595 Arruda Nov. 4, 1952 2,672,839 Neuhaus Mar. 23, 1954 2,689,996Glattes Sept. 28, 1954

